Marathoner’s biopic on silver screen soon

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 23

Sumedha Mahajan, a marathoner and author of bestseller Miles to Run Before I Sleep, has signed off rights to her story to producers Kumar Mangat and Abhishek Pathak, who recently tasted success with Ajay Devgan-starrer Raid. The Amritsar born and bred endurance runner and entrepreneur’s debut book that chronicled her journey of becoming a marathoner despite suffering from several physical challenges will soon be adapted to silver screen and she cannot contain her excitement.

The new mother of a baby girl, Mahajan, said that everything happened as she had wanted. “I am overwhelmed by the fact that my story is going to be made into a movie. The idea of writing a book wasn’t something I had planned, but strangely it turned out well and the response I got was great. So, I wanted to reach out to more people with my story, and what better medium than a film,” she said, while talking to us from Mumbai.

The book, written in 2015, is a memoir of Sumedha’s experience in running at Greenathon held in Delhi in 2012 and covering 1,500 km stretch through seven states in 30 days. She was the only woman participant in the team of six runners, headed by Milind Soman. What makes her story worth telling was the fact that she had been a victim of a hit and run before running Greenathon and suffered serious spinal injuries that confined her to bed. Post her accident, she has won several marathons.

“I suffered from chronic asthma as a kid and I used to be that sickly, weak child, who was made to sit separately in class due to my condition. It affected my confidence while growing up and I took to running in order to build my physical and mental strength,” shares Sumedha. She says her story is relatable as it is about an ordinary woman achieving extraordinary feat. The entrepreneur, who recently launched a sportswear line for women, says that she would be involved in the process of film throughout, she refrained from answering, who she thought would represent her best in the film. “I think it’s for the makers to decide. I just know that it’s a story of determination and inspiration, coming from within us.”